Infants and other incontinent individuals wear disposable absorbent articles to receive and contain urine and other bodily exudates. Absorbent articles having fixed sides have been popular for use on toilet-training children. This is because it is desirable to have an absorbent article which is very garment-like in appearance and feel so a toilet training child will distinguish it from a diaper and will easily adjust to cloth undergarments. It is very desirable that the fixed sides be separable, so the absorbent article can be easily removed. This becomes especially important when the absorbent article is soiled and the soilage could be spread and smeared if the absorbent article had to be removed by sliding it down the length of one or both legs.
An example of a disposable undergarment having separable side seams is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,679 issued to Repke, et al. on Jun. 3, 1980. The Repke, et al. patent discloses a unitary disposable undergarment for use by toilet-training infants or incontinent adults having a fabric to adhesive bond which is weaker than the fabric itself thereby permitting the undergarment to be torn apart at the seams for easier removal when the undergarment is soiled.
Another disposable garment having separable side seams is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,425 issued to Jones, et al. on Oct. 26, 1982. The panty assembly is first folded in half so that the inner surface of the panty is presented outwardly and the transverse edges are adjacent one another. The transverse edges of the folded panty are then glued, sewn, heat sealed, or the like, to form flanges or fin seams. The panty is then inverted so that the exterior surface of the panty is presented outwardly and the flanges are presented inwardly in the finished garment. In an especially preferred embodiment the transverse edges will be sealed using an ultrasonic welder with a 0.5 inch by 7 inch horn attachment, which seals the edges of the panty while trimming surplus material from the transverse edges.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,680 issued to LaFleur, et al. on Sep. 9, 1986 shows a disposable training pant which can be opened to facilitate removal from the wearer. In one embodiment, the disposable undergarment comprises a tearing strand which has greater cohesive strength than the panty material, waistband material, or leg band material. Pulling the tearing strand causes the tearing strand to cut through or break the panty material along its entire length thereby bifurcating it in at least two places. In an alternative embodiment, the garment can be formed with overlapping flap portions mated by hook and pile fastening strips to permit the disposable undergarment to open in at least two places.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,649 issued to Roberts on Oct. 28, 1986 shows a disposable training pant comprising separable side seams. The seams are formed by overlapping the layers of panty material which then may be either stitched, heat sealed or adhesively bonded. If the seams are stitched, the garment is opened by pulling upon the stitching which will separate the seams from the waistband to the leg band. If the seams are heat sealed or adhesively bonded, perforations are used to make this seam separable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,846 issued to Boland, et al. May 31, 1988 shows a disposable undergarment with manually separable side seams. The side seams are secured by sonic welding, heat sealing, or adhesive bonding. The side seam may be an inwardly extending or outwardly extending flange or fin seam, or may be in an overlapping configuration. The side seams are manually separable, or alternatively, the side seams could comprise perforations in the side panels adjacent the side seam.
A disposable garment having separable side seams is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,381 which issued Feb. 10, 1987 to Heran et al. and discloses the inwardly extending flange or fin seam of Jones, et al. having a "bond portion" of about 1/16 inch to 1/8 inch wide and a "flap portion" about 1/8 inch to 3/8 inch wide to form an inwardly extending flange about 3/16 inch to about 1/2 inch wide.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,681 issued Sep. 9, 1986 to Strohbeen, et al. discloses a training pant having the flange or fin seam of Jones, et al. which is outwardly extending.
Another example of a disposable training pant which is openable is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,804 issued to Douglas, Sr. on Mar. 20, 1990. The seams of the disposable training pant are sewn using stitching and are inwardly facing. If the garment becomes soiled with excrement the garment is easily torn open at the side seams by breaking the stitching along the entire seam or the sheets of material, because of their fragile nature, can be torn adjacent to the side seam.
Another problem with disposable training pants is that they must be manufactured in several different sizes to accommodate the different size children of toilet-training age. Accordingly, to adequately meet the consumers needs, a manufacturer of disposable training pants must have several different sets of manufacturing equipment to produce the various sizes. It is, therefore, very desirable to have a design that would allow the manufacturer to make a one-size-fits-all training pant which will substantially meet the consumers needs by fitting a very broad range of child sizes. This requires that the training pant fit snugly about the waist and legs of smaller children without drooping, sagging or sliding down from its position about the lower torso, and must fit larger children without causing irritation to the skin about the waist, legs and crotch. Therefore, the disposable training pants must be elastically extensible about the waist and legs of the wearer, and the elastic elements must have a high degree of stretch.
Prior training pants have been made elastically extensible using elastic elements disposed in the training pants such that the waist opening and leg openings are at least partially encircled with elasticized bands. This method of using elastic elements is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,205,679 to Repke, et al.; 4,610,680 to LaFleur; 4,610,681 to Strohbeen, et al.; 4,641,381 to Heran, et al.; 4,909,804 to Douglas, Sr.; and 4,960,414 to Meyer.
Another method of elasticizing disposable training pants is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,490,464; 4,938,753; and 4,938,757 all of which issued to Van Gompel, et al. These patents disclose a pant-like garment formed by attaching discrete stretchable members to the side edges of the main body of the garment.
Although training pants made according to the above methods, will allow the absorbent articles to fit slight variations in size, training pants made according to those particular methods are limited in their range of fit sizes, because the elastic elements do not have a high degree of stretch, and because the side panels are not elastically extensible or else have elastic side panel elements with attachment zones which inhibit the elasticity of the elastic side panel elements.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of making a disposable garment, such as disposable training pants, having separable, flangeless seams which can be produced more quickly and easily than the sewn or adhesively bonded seams of the prior art and which provide a more garment-like appearance and are less irritating than the heat-sealed or ultrasonically sealed seams of the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a disposable garment, such as disposable training pants, having separable, flangeless seams.